The body of myth that is represented in Greek mythology was initially oral tradition about the deeds of Greek gods and goddesses and ancient Greek heroes and heroines, but it has come down to us recast in literary form. Greek mythology is part of a natural religion, not a revealed religion ascribed to particular inspired teachers; thus the Greeks had no generally accepted supernaturally inspired books of Scripture. There was no single accepted version of a tradition that excluded all others; the concept of heresy was alien to Greek thinking, though impiety was not, including impiety of speaking disrepectfully of the gods and goddesses or heros and heroines of old. It is usual to consider various heroic tales of heros of old as part of Greek mythology.
But mythology was only one part of the religion of the Hellenic civilization. The myths were combined with ritual practices, which were less well documented but have been recovered and interpreted with the help of archaeology and comparative anthropology. Together myth and ritual and beliefs made clear to Hellenes the place of mankind within the natural world, the "rightness" or impiety of actions. Mythological tales could explain and justify events of archaic Greek history. Many of the stories were familiar to all ancient Greeks, though not often in the exactly the same versions. But most surviving writers from the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 5th century CE (when Christians closed the oracle sites and desecrated the temples) expressed doubts about the literal truth of the tales. But such skepticism was generally seen as a more pious response than was belief in the literal truth of the seductions and chicanery and quarrels of the gods in the old tales.
Like their neighbors, the Greeks believed in a pantheon of gods and goddesses who were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and sex, while Ares was the god of war and Hades the god of the dead. Some deities like Apollo and Athene revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions while others like Hestia, Demeter and Aphrodite approached being mere personifications (of the hearth, grain and sexuality respectively). There were also site-specific deities—, such as river gods and nymphs of springs and caves—, venerated tombs of local heros and heroines,
Greek religion also embraced the Mysteries, most prominently the Eleusinian mysteries, though there were numerous other initiatory mystery cults in the Hellenic world, claming to reveal truths generally not known to the uninitiated. A minority revealed religion that appealed to intellectualized mysticism was Orphism, that traced its origins to Orpheus. The "Orphic hymns" and texts have survived only in quotes and fragments and its claims that Orpheus or his pupil Musaeus was the author of the texts was not generally accepted.
Although there were hundreds of beings that could be considered "gods" or "heroes" in one sense or another, many figured only in folklore or were honored locally in particular places (Amphiaraus)) or at particular festivals (Adonis). Major sites of ritual, the large temples, were dedicated mostly to a small circle of gods, chiefly the twelve Olympians, Heracles and Asclepius and in some places Helios. These deities were the centers of the large pan-Hellenic cults. Many regions and even individual villages had their own cults centered on nymphs or minor deities or heros or heroines virtually unknown elsewhere and they often worshipped the major deities with peculiar local rites and had special local legends. Foreign deities like Cybele from Phrygia were known in Greece, but not largely worshipped except in Athens.
In Greek mythology, the gods in the pantheon usually appear in human form, but are often first and foremost personifications of the forces of the universe. As such, they are more or less unchanging. While they sometimes seem to have a sense of justice, they are often petty or vengeful. The gods' favors are won by sacrifices and piety, but this does not guarantee them, for the gods are known to be prone to frequent changes of mind. Their anger is harsh and their love can be just as dangerous.
The world of Greek mythology is quite complex. It is full of monsters, wars, intrigue, and meddling gods. In addition, there are heroes to help overcome these problems. To the Greeks, this was literally part of their history; many never doubted there was much truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. The Greeks used many of the myths to explain cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships, and it was a source of pride to be able to trace one's descent from a mythological hero or a god. The poets also delighted in connecting originally independent tales with one another to create a vast but inconsistance interlace in which every story was in some way conected to every other story, by place by geneology of the characters or by introduction of one character into the tale of another. Weddings,funeral games, and hunts were especially used to introduce mass meetings of heroes from separate tales.
In addition to the continuing use of and allusion to mythology in literature, Greek mythology today makes for some wonderful stories that remain enjoyable. Greek mythology continues to be an important cultural reference long after the Greek religion with which it was entwined ceased to be practiced. There was, to be sure, a Christian move to deface or destroy idols and other images that reflected the public cult of the gods when Christianity replaced paganism as the official faith of the Roman Empire. Literature posed a harder problem to the Christians; it would be impossible to erase the influence of Greek mythology there without casting aside the Iliad and Odyssey, Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid, and many other authors that most were not willing to cast aside. Greek mythology thus has persisted for more than a millennium after Greek religion became extinct. Even much classical Christian literature contains allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, as a glimpse at parts of Dante's Inferno or most of Milton'sParadise Lost makes plain:
From the beginnings of our knowledge poets and mythographers disagreed with one another. The poet Stesichorus (6th century) first proclaimed that Helen had never been at Troy, that only a false illusory image had been successfully abducted by Paris. In the 5th century BCE the poet Euripides often played with the old traditions and often mocked them and through the voice of his characters injects notes of doubt. In other cases Euripides seems to be inviting pointed criticism at the behavior of his gods. Plato in his Republic refers to not speaking about the battles of the gods, advice which seems mostly to have been subsequently followed to our loss. Plato is our earliest for the "Lies of the poets" tradition in hermeneutics of Greek mythology, an approach that was taken up with alacrity by Christian writers (see below).
Mostly the Hellenistic intellectual after the 4th century looked to philosophy to provide answers or to esoteric mystery cults. From Plato onward philosphers either deprecated the old stories or attempted to rationalize them as repositories of hidden meanings or as poetic exagerations of true events. Diodorus Siculus parades one euhemeristic explanation of mythology after another as superior interpretations. But the weight of tradition and the existance of the written word and the excellence of some of the anicent literature which made it impossible to forget the old myths made it equally impossible for new mythological ideas more in agreement with new philosophical ideas to rise.
In Cicero's The Nature of the Gods (3.43), Carnaedes starts trying to distinguish real gods from purely mythological gods, apparently expecting that his audience will quite agree that Orcus (Hades) and Hecate and various others are mostly not considered real deities. Beliefs of various philosphies and schools of thought are discussed and what might or might not seem reasonable is argued. The environment is not condusive to the vision of an inspired poet to be taken as other than entertainment.
Greek mythology as we have it seems to have been largely petrified in fixed forms (with its numerous internal discrepencies) about the beginning of the Hellenistic period and became increasingly looked on in a literary rather than religious vein. Virgil's Aeneid is the one great surviving exception to the rule. But even this was purposely based in style on older literature.
Apollo might in religion be increasingly identified with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling the myths seldom reflect such later religious development. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly disassociated from actual religious practise and religious belief and philosphical belief.
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